Darkness pressed in from all sides, thick as oil, moving between Natasha's finger as she stood frozen within the heart of the abyss. A low sound echoed through through the corrupted space, neither sound nor silence but something stranger and alive. The space around her flickered like broken film as the code beam with like burning fire in the air. She was floating in unreality.
And her brother stood in front of her.
At least, that's what the shape claimed to be.
"Natasha," he said again, extending his hand. His eyes shine with a familiar warmth, the tone of his voice catching on her heart like a thorn from a cherished memory. "Come with me. It's the only way to fix this."
Her fingers hovered inches from his, shaking.
It felt like him. Smelled like him. Even the subtle movement of his brow, the one he got when he was worried was perfectly replicated. But still, something didn't feel right. Her instincts was telling her . Her memories blurred, glitching like unstable code.
Time bent.
Suddenly, she was eight again, holding her brother's hand as they played a cop and thief game in their childhood living room. Then twelve, watching him get suspended for hacking school files to protect her from a bully. Now seventeen, watching his hospital monitor flatline.
Wait..what?
Her breath caught. The memory slipped away like water between her fingers.
A voice came next. Soft. Feminine. Inside her head. Not her brother. Not human.
"He isn't real. You know that. Look deeper. Listen closer. Your heart is a key, but your mind is the lock."
Natasha flinched. The warmth of the hand she almost took suddenly felt cold. The figure's eyes flared red for a millisecond. system red.
She stepped back.
"Who are you really?" she demanded.
The fake smiled. "I'm who you need me to be. Your anchor. Your hope. Your way out."
But the Abyss rippled like a disturbed pond, and the world around her distorted violently.
____
Half a layer above, in the Broken Jungles.
Ira crouched over a mess of shattered foliage, her palms pressed to the jagged crystal interface she had carved into the ground with her own mind. Bead of sweat on her forehead. Her lips moved in frantic whispers.
Codes were floating in the air, moving in an unpredictable pattern.
"Come on… Come on…"
She forced herself deeper into the fragmented link that attached her to The Between. The price was outrageous. The further she pushed, the more her own memories began to twist.
She saw Natasha's childhood.
A birthday party with no guests.
A broken promise written in blood.
But then something else, something Ira hadn't known before:
Natasha's brother, standing before the glowing gate of Jungle Quest.. alone.. afraid..and whispering not to her, but to the System itself:
"If I do this, you promise she will never remember."
The vision splilted.
Ira gasped, falling back, blood trailing from her nose.
Natasha's brother hadn't just entered the game to protect her.
He was hiding something.
_____
Meanwhile, deeper inside the corrupted vines of the jungle quest,
Alison's breathing was ragged. His left leg was torn from a beast made of code that looks like a Jaguar, and his sword sparked from overuse. He pushed forward anyway, one arm holding unto the pulse lantern Ira gave him to trace Natasha's fading signal.
He remembered what he told her after their first boss fight:
"We survive together. No lone wolves."
He never imagined how deep he would have to go to keep that promise.
A split opened in front of him with a glowing tear, pulsing like a heartbeat. The entrance to The Abyss.
He stepped through.
___
Back in the Void, Natasha watched the fake brother's face distorted. His jaw moved, mouth moving in reverse. When he smiled again, it was wrong, like a mask forced onto code.
"You were always meant to be part of this," he said, voice glitching. "You are not a player. You are a gate."
Her eyes widened.
Just Then, a psychic crack.
Ira's voice pierced the void: "That's not him! He's a virus! It's using your memory! Don't listen to him. NATASHA, FIGHT IT!"
The illusion flickered.
Her brother's form twisted, limbs elongating, colors bleeding from his skin. His eyes lost all humanity. Behind him, black spires of corrupted data surged like roots, pulsing with malevolence.
A final echo of Ira's push gave her clarity.
Natasha pulled back her hand.
Then, in one clean motion, she stabbed him.
The blade that she summoned from her own code, her own will had pierced his chest.
But the virus didn't vanish.
It grinned.
"Good. You have opened the door. And now..."
A thunderous crack shattered the void.
"...we're all coming through."
Above them, the sky like thing, if it could be called that ripped apart. A scar of data break through and tore open, revealing wave after wave of digital monsters spilling from the Void into the real game world.
Massive creatures stitched from broken quests, corrupted side characters, failed event files. They poured out like blood from a wound.
Natasha screamed, her voice swallowed by the roar.
Then someone grabbed her hand.
Alison.
Bruised. Bleeding.
Alive.
"Let's finish this together," he growled.
But behind them, the virus began to grow.
The real war had just begun.